


Alive

by etherrealoblivion



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: Episode: 2017 Xmas Twice Upon a Time, Episode: s09e10 Face the Raven, Episode: s09e12 Hell Bent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-28
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:07:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27464677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/etherrealoblivion/pseuds/etherrealoblivion
Summary: Clara Oswald has been frozen in time for eons. Now, a sudden spark in her heart leads her to a long-forgotten place and a never-forgotten friend.
Kudos: 1





	Alive

The sonic screwdriver was warm in Clara's hand. Strange, after all these years she was never accustomed to the warmth of metal against her skin. It should have been cold, it was, in fact, cold, but Clara was much much colder. Her blood didn't pump, her heart didn't beat, her hair didn't grow, and her stomach never rumbled in hunger. Clara wasn't cold because of the temperature, she was cold because there wasn't any reason to be warm.

She checked her pulse again, growing lesser and lesser alarmed by the absence of it the more she did. 

"You okay?"

Ashildr noticed. Ashildr always noticed. Could one spend a hundred thousand hours learning to read minds? Surely not. That was just a side effect of immortality.

"I'm fine," Clara lied, ignoring the tiny scoff under Ashildr's breath. "Where to next?"

This was what coping felt like. Traveling all over, saving lives, saving planets. Saving the universe one soul at a time because it was already too late to save her own. Clara had come to the realization many centuries ago that there were only two other people that knew how she felt. Ashildr, of course, being the only other immortal Clara knew. And….

This is what coping felt like. This is what the Doctor felt like. And he had forgotten her.

It had been millennia since she had last been on earth. The sad little planet hadn't called to her since then. She hoped it was because it had someone watching over it. 

A small zap shot through the back of Clara's neck, right over where the small black tattoo was. She gasped, fingers jumping to the mark. Ashildr was at her side at once.

"What is it?"

A little string seemed to be pulling Clara towards the controls of the TARDIS. "I don't know," she said. Her hands flew over the buttons silently, putting in coordinates. Ashildr let her. They had a sort of unspoken trust in each other and Clara knew she'd trust her to the ends of the earth — which they had been to multiple times before.

The TARDIS snapped into action, flying off past a nebula and jumping through time.

Clara gasped as a warmth spread into her fingers, one she hadn't felt in a very long time. One she hadn't felt since….

"We're going towards Earth."

"Why?" Ashildr asked, no doubt fully aware of what Clara's answer would be.

"I don't know. Check the date," Clara said, clenching her hands tightly as though one small movement would unravel her.

"December twenty-fifth, nineteen fourteen. It's Christmas day."

The TARDIS landed with a  _ thunk _ accompanied by a small crunching noise that Clara dearly hoped was snow. She ran to the doors, flinging them open as Ashildr called, "Clara, no!"

The breath left her throat and her hands unclasped. If she had a heartbeat, it would have skipped for sure.

Fifteen meters away, stood a man Clara had not seen in eons. Fifteen meters away stood the one thing about Clara's past she could never forget. Fifteen meters away stood the Doctor.  _ Her  _ Doctor.

A young woman with very big hair was giving him a kiss on the cheek. Clara's heart yanked her forward, out of the TARDIS and toward the Doctor. 

He looked at her and her heart broke at the recognition in his eyes.

"Clara."

He said her name like a secret. Like a long lost memory that no one had thought of for years.

"Hello," she said, holding back the tears that she would never be able to produce. "You stupid old man."

"You're back. You're in my head. All my memories… are back." 

He sounded so tired. So weak. Clara didn't have to ask to know why. He was dying. She had been dying long enough to recognize it in other people. But if the Doctor was dying, Clara wasn't going to be the one to cry. Even if she could, the Doctor had seen enough tears. So she did the only thing remaining to do.

She smiled.

"And don't go forgetting me again because... quite frankly, that was offensive."

The Doctor smiled and Clara stepped back into the TARDIS, out of his line of sight. The doors closed as the young woman began talking again and Clara collapsed onto the floor. Ashildr was at her side at once.

"He remembers me," she said, wishing with all her heart that her tear ducts could produce the sweet-salty liquid to get out the sadness. "He remembers."

Ashildr took her hand and gasped.

"Clara, you're warm."

Clara touched her arms. She touched the cold metal walls of the TARDIS. The  _ cold _ metal walls. Gasping, she placed her fingertips over her wrist, right at the pulse point. There was silence for a long minute and then she felt it.

"Clara!" Ashildr gasped, staring straight into her eyes.

Suddenly, there was a cold wetness on Clara's cheek. She lifted a finger tentatively to her face and touched the damp skin there. It was a tear. She was crying for the first time since she'd been frozen in time.

Clara didn't have to look in the mirror to know that the little black tattoo on the back of her neck had disappeared. The moment of realization was instantaneous, and although she didn't know what she was now, she knew one thing, the most important thing.

She was alive.


End file.
